Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Slow Travels-Arkansas
    Slow Travels-Arkansas
    Slow Travels-Arkansas
    Ebook217 pages2 hours

    Slow Travels-Arkansas

    By Lyn Wilkerson

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This edition explores the State of Arkansas, retracing U.S. Highways 61, 67, 70, 71, and 79 throughout the state. Each highway includes historic sites and landmarks, background information combed from the American Guide Series of the 1940's updated for the present-day traveler, reference maps, and GPS coordinates for all listed sites.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLyn Wilkerson
    Release dateOct 18, 2010
    ISBN9781452375595
    Slow Travels-Arkansas
    Author

    Lyn Wilkerson

    Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

    Read more from Lyn Wilkerson

    Related to Slow Travels-Arkansas

    Related ebooks

    Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      These Honored Dead

      Apr 20, 2021

      These Honored Dead
      9 min read

    • Article

      Inside Apacheria

      Oct 26, 2021

      Having grown up on the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation in New Mexico, Doug Hocking writes histories and historical fiction rooted in Apache culture. His nonfiction works include Tom Jeffords: Friend of Cochise (2017), The Black Legend: George Bas

      3 min read

    • Article

      Puckety Chute

      Mar 1, 2018

      Puckety Chute
      17 min read

    • Article

      Relics And Graves

      Mar 9, 2021

      Relics And Graves
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Kid An ‘Outlaw’?

      Aug 9, 2022

      Your informative magazine has lots of stories about incidents that are not well known, but boy, oh boy, you got it wrong with your December 2021 cover that calls Jesse James and Billy the Kid Iconic Outlaws. As far as Billy is concerned, that’s 180 d

      4 min read

    • Article

      The War On The Net

      Sep 25, 2018

      altchive.org/private-voices In January 1862, a scuffle broke out in the camp of the 6th North Carolina Infantry, which was part of the Confederacy’s blockade of the Potomac River. The Carolinians had been skirmishing with Federal defenders on the Mar

      1 min read

    • Article

      Find Your U.S. Ancestors

      Oct 31, 2023

      Find Your U.S. Ancestors
      1 min read

    • Article

      Life Of A Ghost Town

      Jan 7, 2020

      Life Of A Ghost Town
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘True To Their Country’

      Aug 18, 2020

      ‘True To Their Country’
      15 min read

    • Article

      Kings Mountain

      Nov 29, 2018

      Kings Mountain
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘Old Brains’ And ‘Granny Lee’

      Mar 9, 2021

      THE RELATIONSHIP between soldiers and their commanders can be indicated by nicknames, which also provide insights into how opponents and civilians on both sides thought about various generals. Nathan Bedford Forrest, lauded by Confederates as the “Wi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stopped Cold By Fire

      Mar 29, 2022

      Stopped Cold By Fire
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Parting

      Jul 6, 2021

      The Parting
      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘Splendid Strategy’

      Feb 9, 2021

      ‘Splendid Strategy’
      3 min read

    • Article

      Citizen Soldiers

      Jan 12, 2021

      Citizen Soldiers
      14 min read

    • Article

      What Mac Did Right

      Jul 18, 2023

      What Mac Did Right
      5 min read

    • Article

      One-name Studies

      Feb 9, 2021

      One-name Studies
      5 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Letter

      Jul 6, 2021

      The last of the Apache wars, the final surrender of the Chiricahuas in September 1886 and their long captivity—all these dramatic events remain as closely associated with Geronimo as his people once were with the rugged ranges of what became southeas

      3 min read

    • Article

      Pivotal Western Summer

      Oct 19, 2021

      Pivotal Western Summer
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Remains

      Nov 29, 2019

      What Remains
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Slow Travels-Arkansas

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Slow Travels-Arkansas - Lyn Wilkerson

      While every effort has been made to insure accuracy, neither the author nor the publisher assume legal responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this book or the information it contains.

      All maps are by the author.

      Slow Travels-Arkansas

      Smashwords Edition

      Lyn Wilkerson

      All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2010 Lyn Wilkerson

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

      any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

      recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system,

      without the permission in writing from the author.

      License Notes:

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Introduction

      This guide, along with the various others produced by Lyn Wilkerson and Caddo Publications USA, are based on the American Guide Series. Until the mid-1950’s, the U.S. Highway System provided the means for various modes of transport to explore this diverse land. To encourage such explorations, the Works Projects Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Federal Writers Project created the American Guide Series. This series of books were commissioned by the Federal Government to capture the culture and history of the United States and provide the direction necessary for travelers to explore it. Each state created a commission of writers who canvassed their respective territories for content to submit. The preliminary works were then sent to Washington D.C. for final assembly in to a standard format. The result was a travel guide for each state. The series spread to include guides for important cities as well. After the State Guides were complete, the concept of a national guide was developed. However, it would not be until 1949, with the backing of Hastings House Publishing, that a true national guide would be created. Through several rounds of condensing, the final product maintained much of the most essential points of interest and the most colorful material.

      To quote from the California edition of the American Guide Series, romance has been kept in its place. . . The intent of this guide is to provide information about the historic sites, towns, and landmarks along the chosen routes, and to provide background information and stories for what lies in-between. It is not our desire to dramatize the history or expand on it in any way. We believe that the character and culture of this state, and our country as a whole, can speak for itself. The guide has been created, not for just travelers new to the city, but for current residents who may not realize what lies just around the corner in their own neighborhood. The goal of Caddo Publications USA is to encourage the exploration of the rich history that many of us drive by on a regular basis without any sense it existed, and to entertain and educate so that history will not be lost in the future.

      This edition in the Slow Travels series follows the model of the Arkansas, A Guide to the State, first published in 1941. Updated travel information, additional historic sites and landmarks, and modern resources including GPS coordinates for listed historic sites.

      Table of Contents:

      U.S. Highway 61

      U.S. Highway 67

      U.S. Highway 70

      U.S. Highway 71

      U.S. Highway 79

      U.S. Highway 61

      U.S. Highway 61, swinging southward from the northeast corner of Arkansas, cuts directly through the richest of the Mississippi cotton bottoms. Of the river, Mark Twain said (Life on the Mississippi) that because of the constant shifting of the channel and deposits of silt, ‘nearly the whole of that one thousand three hundred miles of old Mississippi River which La Salle floated down in his canoes, two hundred years ago, is good solid dry ground now. The river lies to the right of it, in places, and to the left of it in other places.’ So the traveler, on this route, may drive his automobile over farm lands where French explorers paddled canoes.

      Missouri State Line

      Blytheville (6 miles south of the Missouri Line on U.S. 61)

      Blytheville was named for the Reverend Henry T. Blythe, a Virginia-born Methodist minister who came to Mississippi County in 1853. At that time, the northeastern tip of Arkansas was covered with frequently flooded forests and almost impenetrable underbrush. On a spot of fairly high land well back from the Mississippi, Blythe built his home and a small church. From this center, he traveled throughout the region to conduct services and hold camp meetings. The community that grew up around the church became known as Blythe Chapel.

      Among the most fondly remembered and colorful figures who settled in the neighborhood was Dr. Benjamin A. Bugg, a physician and planter famed for his extraordinary beard. Bugg thought that his 6 and ½ foot adornment was the longest in the world, but in 1893 at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition he saw a man with whiskers that were an inch longer. Chagrined, the doctor returned home and cut off his fabulous beard.

      In 1880, Blythe divided some of his land into town lots, but the isolated village grew slowly for the next ten years because there was no way of reaching it except over boggy roads. After L.W. Gosnell installed a gin in 1888, however, a few cotton buyers from Jonesboro and Memphis began to come in each fall. In 1891, about the time its growth began, Blytheville was incorporated. A newspaper, the Plain Dealer, began publication in 1898, and shortly afterward a driller brought in an artesian well that gave the townspeople good water. In 1907, Blytheville ended a long rivalry with the Chickasawba community to the west by annexing it.

      For a decade before the end of the nineteenth century, the thick strands of timber near Blytheville had been a lure to lumber companies and railroads. The first effort to extend rails to the town began in 1893 with the formation of the Paragould Southeastern Railway Company, a line that later connected Blytheville with the St. Louis Southwestern at Paragould. The rails of the Jonesboro, Lake City, & Eastern reached Blytheville in 1901, and the following year the St. Louis & Memphis (later the St. Louis-San Francisco) came southward across the Missouri Line. For the first few years after the railroads came Blytheville depended largely on lumbering for its income, and muddy Main Street was filled with strings of mule-drawn wagons, often carrying one huge log apiece.

      Points of Interest:

      Mississippi County Courthouse (Walnut Street and 2nd Street)

      This structure was erected in 1919.

      Chickasawaba Indian Mound (1.3 miles west on Chickasawaba Avenue)

      The peace-loving Chickasawaba Indians possibly built this mound as a temple upon which to chant their prayers to the sun, fire, and water.

      Eaker/Blytheville Air Force Base (3 miles northwest of Blytheville)

      Known for most of its operational life as Blytheville Army Airfield (1942-1946) or Blytheville Air Force Base (1953-1988), the facility was renamed Eaker Air Force Base on May 26th, 1988, in honor of General Ira C. Eaker, an air pioneer and first commander of Eighth Air Force during World War II. The Blytheville Army Air Field was activated on June 10th, 1942. Mississippi County was a prime location because of its close proximity to the Mississippi River, where supplies could easily be shipped in. The air field was used as the Southeastern Training Command’s flight training school. The flight school closed in October of 1945 after the war ended. The air field was then used as a processing center for military personnel who were being discharged at a rapid rate as the country demobilized. The War Assets Administration officially shut down the installation in 1946. Control of the land was transferred to the city of Blytheville.

      In the early 1950s, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) approved a plan to convert the former air field into an air base. Blytheville Air Force Base was officially christened as a single-mission base on July 19th, 1955. The base was decommissioned in 1992.

      Eaker was the architect of a strategic bombing force that ultimately numbered forty groups of 60 heavy bombers each, supported by a subordinate fighter command of 1,500 aircraft, most of which was in place by the time he relinquished command of Eighth Air Force at the start of 1944.

      Side Trip to Manila (AR 18 West)

      Manila (17 miles west on AR 18)

      Formerly known as Big Lake Island, Manila was founded in 1852 by Ed Smith. The early stands of virgin red oak, cypress, gum, and walnut made profitable the laying of narrow-gauge tramways into the forest to haul out timber, and Manila became a lumber town. In 1901, when the Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern Railroad (later part of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad) came through, the community was renamed in honor of Admiral Dewey’s victory at Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. Principal streets, such as Baltimore and Olympia, bear the names of battleships that were engaged in the contest.

      Points of Interest:

      Herman Davis Monument (AR 18 and Baltimore Avenue)

      This memorial honors a local World War I hero, Private Herman Davis (1888-1923) of the 113th Infantry of the American Expeditionary Forces. Davis first achieved the hero distinction by killing, single-handed, four German machine gunners, a feat described as ‘almost impossible,’ thereby saving an entire American company from annihilation. In another skirmish, he killed 47 enemy gunners as fast as they peeped from behind parapets, picking them off as accurately as he had ‘barked’ squirrels back home in Big Lake. He was cited by General John J. Pershing for bravery and extraordinary heroism in action. The General also called Davis Arkansas’ greatest soldier, and listed him as fourth among 100 American heroes of the war. Davis was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the French Croix de Guerre with Palm Leaf and Gilt Star, and the French Medaille Militaire. After the war, he returned to his home, where he carried on his former pursuits of farming, hunting, and trapping until he died in 1923 of tuberculosis contracted during his service overseas.

      Jonesboro, Lake City, & Eastern Railroad Depot (S. Dewey and Baltimore Avenue)

      This wood-frame railroad depot was built in 1910. This railroad came to Manila in 1901 when investors from Jonesboro recognized the need for transportation to and from Big Lake Island. They formed the Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railroad Company (JLC&E) and constructed track beds, tracks, trestles and bridges across the St. Francis River at Lake City and stopped at Manila and Big Lake. As soon thereafter as possible, they built a bridge across Big Lake and pushed the tracks to Blytheville and to Barfield on the Mississippi River.

      Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, which owned and operated a large mill in Blytheville, built narrow gauge lines all over Big Land Island and Buffalo Island on which logs were loaded, carried to Manila, taken to the Manila stave mill, reloaded on regular gauge tracks of the JLC&E to be carried to the Blytheville mill of Chicago Mill & Lumber Company.

      R. E. L. Wilson purchased control of the JLC&E railroad in 1914. Wilson connected this railroad with a branch coming from the Frisco lines at Wilson, Arkansas near Dell, Arkansas. Traffic by rail doubled by way of Manila to Jonesboro and on to Kansas City and St. Louis. The name Jonesboro Lake City and Eastern remained until it was purchased by the Frisco in 1929.

      Although the JLC&E railroad primarily served the various lumber companies organized in Blytheville, Leachville and Manila, the railroad was also utilized for food transportation as Manila was the fish processing center for nearby Big Lake. For a while, forty tons of fish together with large quantities of ducks and turtles were shipped daily from the Manila Depot.

      There were four passenger trains that visited Manila daily, two from Jonesboro and two from Blytheville. Long lines of freight cars carried lumber and logs from Manila daily. Competition between railroads and trucks and buses came with construction of highways in and out of Manila in 1924. A road improvement district was formed, and a concrete road was built from Leachville to Manila in 1924. With improved roads came automobiles, buses and truck lines which encroached upon rail traffic.

      The saw mills and lumber mills closed when the trees had been cleared. Cultivable lands upon which cotton and other crops grew replaced the timber business. Railroads carried these products to out-of state markets; however, passenger service was terminated. Soon afterwards, freight transportation also ceased and the railroad era ended in Manila. Today, the only depot and the siding tracks remain.i

      Luxora (12 miles south of Blytheville on U.S. 61)

      The first settler of Luxora was D.T. Waller, who built a one-room store on the bank of the Mississippi River in 1882. He named the settlement after his daughter. Until about 1900, the town bustled with river life. Anchor, Collar, and Lee Line steamers made regular stops.

      The cabins and saloons on these floating palaces were hand carved in rosewood and walnut, magnificently carpeted and draped, and furnished with huge French mirrors, crystal chandeliers, oil paintings and frescoes, and grand pianos. The bridal suite, when occupied, was serenaded by Blacks with gourd fiddles. Even the gamblers were gracious and ornamental, with their elaborate courtesy, their lace cuffs, and tall hats. But the passengers on the steamboats remained frontiersmen, however luxurious their surroundings. Their daily contact with elemental dangers made them hot-blooded and high-headed. Even an imagined insult would often provoke a fight.

      The arrival of a railroad in 1899 helped Luxora to survive its colorful past.

      Osceola (5 miles south of Luxora on U.S. 61)

      This town is named for the Indian chief Osceola (1804-1838), who led his people during the Seminole War in Florida. In 1830,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1